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“Customers can collect their mail at Holmfirth Delivery Office while the suspension is in place.”

Dog owners said they shared Royal Mail’s concerns about dangerous dogs.

Ruth Pickles, a mother-of-four and grandmother who owns a Staffordshire bull terrier cross breed, said police and a dog warden visited her home on Copley Avenue on Tuesday.

They checked her dog Charlie was microchipped and took note of her dog’s behaviour.

Ruth Pickles, of Copley Avenue, with her dog Charlie

Mrs Pickles then received a hand-delivered letter from Royal Mail saying that deliveries to her home were being suspended because of the risk to postal staff.

“I really feel sorry for the people that have been attacked. We want to live in a safe place and we want post people to be safe. It just seems we are being victimised because we have dogs.”

She added: “The Royal Mail want safety for their workers and that’s very understandable considering what has happened.”

Mum-of-three Andrea Turner, 48, who has lived on the estate 15 years, said: “I have to go to Holmfirth to pick up my post and I don’t drive.

Andrea Turner, of Meltham, who is concerned about the effect of the mail suspension on older people

“But it’s the old people I worry about. There’s a lot of them and it’s not fair on them. They don’t understand, some of them.”

Holme Valley North councillor Terry Lyons said the police had said there were 30 dogs in the area.

“One dog has frightened a postman and now there is a blanket ban on deliveries. People haven’t been given any warning. They have to go to Holmfirth (to collect mail).”

He said residents had contacted him saying they had received a letter saying deliveries had been suspended, with no telephone number to ring to make enquiries.

He said: “They have three months to appeal. Why couldn’t there be a compromise where the resident puts a box at the bottom of the garden so they don’t have to go in? It’s disgraceful - it’s very heavy-handed.”